Greedfall

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 51st out of 1,705 tested combinations for Greedfall, placing it in the top 3% of all configs. This is an exceptionally strong result, though the ranking shows that the CPU is the limiting factor in this pairing; the RTX 4090 alone sits in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, while the i5-13400F sits in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. The data indicates that this combo delivers elite frame rates across all resolutions, but the gap between the GPU’s raw potential and the CPU’s mid-range positioning becomes apparent at lower resolutions where the processor must keep up with the GPU’s output.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 51 out of 1,705 tested combinations is a decisive top-tier placement, putting it ahead of roughly 97% of all tested pairings for this Action RPG. This ranking is driven by the RTX 4090’s overwhelming compute advantage, as its average benchmark score of 66,473 dwarfs the CPU’s average of 25,236. The GPU’s percentile standing at 91 versus the CPU’s 82 means that in Greedfall, the graphics card is doing the heavy lifting, but the processor is not holding it back to any significant degree at higher resolutions.

Against its nearest rivals, the i5-13400F is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-13620H, showing a negligible 0.1% delta in average score. It also trades blows with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which is 0.5% ahead, and the AMD EPYC 9474F, which is 0.5% behind. This cluster of results confirms that the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class, neither exceeding nor falling short of comparable processors. For Greedfall specifically, the combination of a 10-core, 16-thread CPU with a 24 GB GPU ensures that the game never becomes unplayable, even at the most demanding settings, though the Ultra preset at 4K does drop below the 100 FPS threshold.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear hierarchy across presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 353.8 FPS, which is over 100 FPS higher than the next step up, Medium at 278 FPS. However, for a visually rich Action RPG, High at 253.8 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a massive frame rate buffer while still providing substantial visual fidelity over Low. Ultra at 1080p drops to 162.3 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth but represents a 36% performance hit over High for diminishing visual returns.

At 1440p, the pattern holds: High at 174.8 FPS is the recommended preset for a balance of quality and speed, as it stays well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that most high-end monitors target. Medium at 190 FPS is also viable, but the jump to High only costs about 8% performance. For 4K, the recommendation shifts dramatically. High at 105.5 FPS is the only preset that maintains a triple-digit average, making it the clear winner for a smooth 4K experience. Medium at 111.3 FPS is slightly faster, but the visual degradation is not worth the marginal gain. Ultra at 63.7 FPS is playable but dips into the range where fast-paced combat might feel less responsive, so it is best avoided unless visual fidelity is the absolute priority.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals that this combo is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions, but the CPU begins to show its limits as resolution drops. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 253.8 at 1080p to 174.8 at 1440p, a 31% drop, and then to 105.5 at 4K, another 40% drop. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4090 is being fed progressively more pixels, and its raw compute is the primary driver of performance. The fact that 1080p High only hits 253.8 FPS, rather than exceeding 300 FPS, suggests that the i5-13400F is capping the GPU’s output at lower resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more telling. The 1080p Low result of 353.8 FPS drops to 244.1 at 1440p (a 31% reduction) and then to 144.6 at 4K (a 41% reduction). The 1440p to 4K drop is nearly identical to the High preset, which confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K regardless of settings. However, the 1080p Low result, which is the highest frame rate in the entire dataset, shows that the CPU can push the GPU to its limits when the pixel workload is light, but it cannot sustain that output at higher resolutions where the GPU becomes the sole limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its peak performance across all presets. Low averages 353.8 FPS, Medium 278 FPS, High 253.8 FPS, and Ultra 162.3 FPS. The step from Medium to High is only a 9% reduction, while the step from High to Ultra is a 36% reduction, making Ultra the only preset that drops below the 200 FPS mark at this resolution. These numbers indicate that for 1080p gaming, the combo is overkill, as even Ultra provides frame rates far beyond what most displays can show.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages remain high but the gap between presets narrows. Low hits 244.1 FPS, Medium 190 FPS, High 174.8 FPS, and Ultra 110.2 FPS. The delta between Low and High is 28%, which is smaller than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is starting to become the more dominant factor. At 3840x2160, the results compress further: Low averages 144.6 FPS, Medium 111.3 FPS, High 105.5 FPS, and Ultra 63.7 FPS. The difference between Medium and High is just 5%, while Ultra is 40% slower than High, making Ultra the only preset that fails to maintain a playable 60 FPS average.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed star of this pairing, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth providing ample headroom for Greedfall’s textures and effects. The GPU’s 16,384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units deliver a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s, which explains why the card can push 144.6 FPS at 4K Low and 105.5 FPS at 4K High. The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the key driver behind the high frame rates, and the 128 ray tracing cores are available for any future titles that leverage the technology.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz are relatively modest for a card of this class, but the sheer number of compute units compensates for the clock speed. The 91st percentile ranking against all GPUs places it well above its nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (which is 0.4% behind) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (0.9% behind), confirming that the RTX 4090 is operating at the very top of its class. In Greedfall, the GPU’s role is to handle the high-resolution rendering, and the data shows that it does so without breaking a sweat, even at 4K High.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides the computational backbone for this combo, with 10 cores and 16 threads running at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache offer solid data locality for game logic, but the CPU’s 82nd percentile ranking places it firmly in the mid-range tier. Its 3DMark scores tell the story: 7,314 in the 16-thread test and 960 in the single-thread test, which are respectable but not top-tier numbers.

The CPU’s performance in Greedfall is best illustrated by the 1080p Low result of 353.8 FPS. This shows that the processor can feed the GPU enough data to exceed 350 FPS, but the fact that the 1080p High result is only 253.8 FPS, compared to the GPU’s ability to hit 144.6 FPS at 4K Low, suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The nearest rival data reinforces this: the i5-13400F is within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D and the Intel Core i7-13620H, meaning that no mid-range CPU would perform materially better in this game. For a game like Greedfall, which is not heavily threaded, the CPU’s 16 threads are more than sufficient, but its single-thread performance of 960 in 3DMark is what caps the maximum frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: High is the best choice for 4K, delivering an average of 105.5 FPS. Medium is slightly faster at 111.3 FPS, but High provides a better visual experience with only a 5% performance reduction.

Q: Can this combo achieve 144 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, the High preset at 1440p averages 174.8 FPS, which is well above 144 FPS. Even the Ultra preset at 110.2 FPS falls short of 144 FPS, so High is the recommended preset for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors.

Q: Why does the Ultra preset at 4K perform so poorly?

A: The Ultra preset at 4K averages 63.7 FPS, which is 40% slower than the High preset. This is due to the massive increase in rendering complexity, which taxes the GPU’s resources and causes the frame rate to drop below the 100 FPS threshold seen in other presets.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-13620H, showing a 0.1% delta in average benchmark score. It is 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D and 0.5% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9474F, indicating that it performs exactly as expected for its class.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No, the data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor. The 1080p Low result of 353.8 FPS is the highest in the dataset, but the 1080p High result of 253.8 FPS shows that the GPU is not being fully utilized, as it can achieve 144.6 FPS at 4K Low.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking for Greedfall?

A: The combo ranks 51st out of 1,705 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3% of all configs. This is driven by the RTX 4090’s elite performance, with the i5-13400F providing sufficient support without holding the system back at higher resolutions.